


On Scaly Wings with Flaming Breath

by Ignicula



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Aldnoah Zero but with Dragons, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dragons, Don't expect too much, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I got creative with dragons, Inaho and Slaine are dragons, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23822314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignicula/pseuds/Ignicula
Summary: Uh, I guess I forgot to put a summary here when I first posted it. Might as well do that now.In which wars are fought on the backs of dragons instead of in kataphrakts, Slaine is a young dragon who was rescued by Princess Asseylum as a hatchling and has stayed by her side ever since. When the war begins, things rapidly begin to spiral out of control...And who on earth is this orange nobody who thinks he can (and is somewhat successful in his endeavors to) beat all the Vers dragons on cleverness alone?
Relationships: Kaizuka Inaho/Slaine Troyard
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44





	On Scaly Wings with Flaming Breath

**Author's Note:**

> So uh, I have no idea if this is actually going to be any good, but bear with me for a bit okay? This is kind of just the result of me not sleeping. Enjoy if you dare.

Slaine still remembers the day he first met Asseylum Vers Allusia. He can’t say it had been a warm day, as days were never warm on Vers. She had saved him from a crashed ship and shared her aldnoah with him so that he could live.

Ever since then, despite being a dragon of low breeding that had come from Terra of all places, he had strove his best to become Her Highness’s dragon when the time came for her to make her choice of a life partner.

When she was sent to earth with no real draconic escort besides the tiny dragoness Eddelrittuo whose bark was quite literally more ferocious than her bite, he had not exactly been pleased. Neither, for that matter, had Count Cruhteo and his life partner, Tharsis. They’d taken it out on him by having Tharsis practice combat by hunting him down through the void again. Slaine wishes that they would get it into their heads that just because Terran dragons could go into space without the aid of the aldnoah that would otherwise be provided by their partners didn’t mean he particularly liked to do so.

He also wishes they wouldn’t hunt him at all. Tharsis was a ferocious creature with a very strong penchant for predicting the future. Slaine never stood a chance, and both the Count and his dragon knew it.

They’d all been even less pleased when the princess had been assassinated. Slaine himself had flown into a rage, temporarily going so far as to partner with Sir Trillram while his dragon, a flightless Wyrm, was ferried to the ground. 

Finding out she was alive had honestly made his entire several weeks. Finding out she was alive and flying into battle with some random orange beast that was so clearly a mutt he couldn’t even tell what species it was still did give him some relief, but he was hardly impressed by her choice in dragons. The only thing stopping him from going over there and _flattening_ the hideously-colored creature to a pulp was that it was also rather obvious that she hadn’t shared Aldnoah with it.

He later eats Sir Trillram for being a traitor before returning to the landing castle to investigate her highness’s murder. Needless to say, it’s a bit difficult due to the fact that he’s a several-ton white terran dragon - a sight that sticks out like a sore thumb no matter what he tries - but he still manages to uncover enough in the time that Vlad and Argyros are having the living puss being beaten out of them by Princess Asseylum, the orange thing, and two other dragons that he is swiftly labeled as a traitor himself and cast out.

Slaine supposes he should have predicted a result like this considering the subtlety a dragon is capable of, and decides that if he can’t root out the traitor from within he’ll make sure to protect Princess Asseylum from it by her side.

O

His view of the orange creature admittedly changes after they fly into battle together against Hellas and Countess Femianne.

While Slaine obviously has the advantage of maneuverability and speed due to his many ‘training sessions’ with the elder dragons of vers, Orange is a strategist. Each move he makes is carefully planned, leading Hellas into trap after trap, nearly tricking the hotheaded dragoness into crashing several times during the fight. Not only that, but he’s hardly slouching in the athletic department either. Slaine finds himself hard-pressed to keep up with what Orange is doing for most of the fight.

Even with all of that they nearly lose, only saved by the appearance of a flying dragon-carrier of all things, the missiles from its canons knocking Hellas out of the air before the entire ship flattens her into a gory smudge on the landscape. 

He recognizes the princess on the deck, his dormant aldnoah surging to the surface at the sight of her, and he calls her name. This, of course, is where things go wrong.

Orange is immediately put on-guard by his recognition of her, demanding to know how Slaine knew she was alive. Slaine is put on guard by the anger this other dragon shows. He thinks it’s probably unlikely that they’re using her; Orange doesn’t have aldnoah despite the princess having flown into battle on his back before. Still, the fact that there’s a possibility that they will do so in the future is enough to make him bare his fangs at the smaller dragon.

From everything Slaine knows about combat, he should have won that battle. He’s bigger, stronger, faster, and has more maneuverability. To him, defeating Orange should have been as simple as a cat playing with a toy.

It isn’t.

Despite Slaine’s aerial superiority, Orange is slippery like a fish and has a nasty touch of firebreath that keeps Slaine on his wingtips, wary of the other’s impeccable aim and timing. Despite the fight, he’s sure he’s nearly won by the time the two other dragons that had aided them, Yuki and Inko, plunge from the sky to restrain them.

The purple one is slightly larger than Slaine and uses that to become a deadweight on his back. He has to either descend to the dragon carrier’s deck or crash to the ground below; his choice. Orange receives similar treatment from the large green dragoness, and both are restrained on the deck for “infighting like hooligans for seemingly no good reason”. Throughout the lecture, he and Orange won’t stop glaring at each other, growling low in their throats. The weird fins on Orange’s head are laid flat like the ears of a cat, lip curled to only vaguely reveal his fangs in response to Slaine’s full-on toothy snarl. 

“Slaine!” He blinks, hostility immediately fading when a familiar human voice rings out. Princess Asseylum runs onto the deck, waving and clearly delighted to see him.

“Your highness!” He cries gleefully. “Are you alright? They haven’t hurt you, have they?”

“No, no, I’m fine!” She laughs. “More importantly are _you_ alright? Why were you and Inaho-san fighting?”

 _So that's its name,_ He thinks as he looks to the orange dragon. All signs of hostility have abruptly faded and he’s looking at the princess with shameless red eyes as he says: “I suspected that he may have been with the assassins, so I attacked him.”

“Suspected that I…” Slaine hisses at the other dragon. “Of _course_ I’m not…”

“I had no way to know that at the time.” He says flippantly. “You were - and still are - a strange dragon with scales painted in vers colors that has flown against us before, and you somehow knew about Princess Asseylum being alive.”

 _That does_ , he begrudgingly admits in his head, _sound suspicious._

“My apologies for acting without first attempting to verify your intentions.” Orange says. “My name is Inaho, a hybrid dragon in the temporary service of the UFE until I select a human partner.”

He blinks in surprise at the apology. “No, I’m sorry for not being clearer on my intent.” He decides to follow the other dragon’s lead. “My name is Slaine, class - four dragon in the service of Her Highness.”

“Slaine’s been my best friend since we were both little!” Asseylum says, and though he’s also paying attention to her, Slaine sees a glimmer of approval in the other dragon’s otherwise unreadable eyes, seemingly at his word choice.

_Maybe we’ll get along after all._

O

They do not.

O

It starts with him being unable to drop the nickname of ‘Orange’ with the other dragon, resulting in said orange creature deciding his name is now ‘Bat’. It continues when they clash in practice matches and Orange displays his infuriating if admittedly effective fighting style, tricking Slaine into creating openings and attacking with all his might. It goes even further when Inaho is the one who successfully fends off an assassination attempt from the human girl Rayet instead of Slaine and then _letting her go without even biting off a limb_. He’s bitter about that for some time to come, even if the Princess seems to think it’s fine.

Slaine thinks that he will never get along with orange at all.

Then they are attacked by Tharsis.

O

The battle goes about as well as Slaine expects it to. Tharsis treats him and most of the other dragons in the air like chew toys, evaded only by Orange. The other grows increasingly infuriated as the battle goes on, focusing more and more on the small orange dragon. 

Slaine knows it’s only a matter of time before Tharsis catches Orange in his claws and probably rips him in two. He counts them all lucky when only the first happens.

Orange turns this into an advantage too, locking his jaws onto the larger dragon’s throat and refusing to let go. Though it solves the mystery of the strange fins on his head - a trademark of south american Quetzalcoatls that were the only dragons capable of locking their jaws like that - Slaine has more important things to worry about.

Such as landing on The back of the much-larger dragon to try and take a few bites out of the Count he’s come to hate so much.

Naturally, Tharsis does not take well to this. Neither does Count Cruhteo. Although it costs him a large hunk of scaly plate-armor on his throat, Tharsis spins in the air to dislodge Inaho and bucks Slaine straight off his back. Slaine is sure the dragon is about to pursue the orange dragon who now has a massive hunk of bone stuck in his mouth to prevent him from biting down anymore, but the count seems to know better and cuts his losses, steering Tharsis away and back towards the landing castle.

The battle isn’t exactly won, but it hasn’t been lost either. Slaine counts it as a draw and flies over to help Inaho before he rips all his teeth out or dislocates his jaw trying to deal with the results of his poor decision-making.

O

Somehow, they get along much better after that.

O

Slaine discovers that, amongst other things, one of Inaho’s favorite pastimes when he’s not studying, training, or attempting to read books with one of the projectors below decks is taking naps on the deck of the deucalion with the other dragons. Perhaps it’s normal for dragons - terran breeds especially - to enjoy sunning themselves, but it’s just so mundane and normal that it’s unexpected out of the strange orange one. He also discovers that, while normally Inaho is a quiet sleeper that rarely moves, he’s drawn to large sources of heat - particularly those generated by dragons who have spent the majority of their lives in space soaking up solar radiation like Slaine has. Despite how cold the other dragon feels when he decides he’s just going to use Slaine as a giant heat blanket, he finds he doesn’t mind the behavior as he thought he would.

The Princess seems to enjoy it when she finds them like that in any case, so he can put up with it. 

O

Slaine has never flown into a rage over another dragon before, but he’s doing it now.

Dioscuria, in a cowardly move befitting a Versian Amphithere, faked her own breath before whipping Orange in the eye with its tail. 

Orange is half-blind and will be for the rest of his life, and Dioscuria looms over the injured dragon and _gloats._

Slaine rips her apart just to see how long she can keep gloating after that. As expected, she’s not gloating for long. In fact, Slaine thinks, her mangled corpse suggests that she’ll never gloat again.

He takes bounding steps to make it to where Asseylum has just reached Inaho, who is both half-blind and poisoned from the amphithere’s venom. 

“I have to save him,” she says.

Slaine understands. Maybe he won’t be the one special dragon who has her aldnoah anymore, but he thinks it’s worth it to save the little orange dragon he’s grown so fond of.

Asseylum shares her aldnoah, and is immediately shot down from behind by Count Saazbaum.

Slaine is given an ultimatum; become Saazbaum’s partner and save Asseylum or she would die here, dooming both her and Orange who has just been granted a share of her life to death.

He chooses the option that saves them.

O

In the time he isn’t fighting, he’s either visiting Asseylum where she sleeps in stasis or Inaho who rests in chains in the depths of the Moon Base. The orange dragon is miserable and listless most of the time, though most can’t tell from his mannerisms alone. 

If Count Saazbaum has his way, Orange will never see earth again. He will be shipped back to earth and studied for his bloodline, which Saazbaum is convinced is the only reason the orange dragon was able to defeat Dioscuria. Meanwhile Dioscuria has already been replaced by her brother Scurious, who named himself after his fallen kin. Slaine’s purpose here is simply ornamental; the dragon who served Princess Asseylum and even now stayed by her side. His presence was necessary to make Princess Lemrina’s lies hold more legitimacy. If he refused to recognize her, others would catch on rather quickly.

Once a dragon has been granted aldnoah, they cannot go against the word of their partner. This is a well-known fact.

 _So all I have to do is sit and pretend they hold my leash,_ Slaine thinks, _While I wait for Asseylum-hime to wake up and for the transports to arrive to ship Orange to Vers._

_But is that really the only thing I can do?_

No, he discovers, it is not.

He kills Scurious in the field, making it seem as though it was the work of terrans. Now out of a dragon once more, Saazbaum is forced to partner with Slaine.

Slaine waits patiently for the perfect chance before he strikes. He’s facing off against Orange’s sister Yuki in a battle against Titan Base and throws his harness.

The only thing keeping his partner attached to his back goes spiraling off into space, along with his ability to use aldnoah. A quick strike from a ferocious and vengeful purple dragon is enough to finish his ‘partner’ off and he doesn’t even need to do the deed himself.

As per Count Saazbaum’s orders, as his partner Slaine is given temporary control over the Moon Base - something no dragon has ever done before. Extracting a promise from orange not to cause any trouble, he sets the other dragon free.

Despite being caged while Slaine is free, both of them have grown, Orange just enough to very nearly catch up to Slaine. Were it not for his lack of practice, Slaine thinks that Inaho would have already matured into a fighter that could have beaten him. As it is, the other is half-blind and still adapting, so even when they do take to space in the occasional flight Orange never puts up as strong a fight as he used to despite his swiftly-increasing abilities as he readjusts. They bide their time waiting for their shared partner to awaken so that Slaine can reveal Lemrina’s farce and end the war. And when she does…

Oh what a _spectacular_ end it is. The Princess who thought she could command him by living in her sister’s image is finally gone - not dead, merely living her own life far away from him and Asseylum-hime - and Princess Asseylum has returned, the farce of Lemrina’s control having been exposed in full to the entire world. Saazbaum’s supporters do not go down without a fight, but by that time Inaho is stronger than ever before and they defeat all the foes headed their way before flying steadily back down into Earth’s Atmosphere to meet with the UFE for peace talks, Asseylum securely inside of the cockpit-like structure the shelter of his harness provides her and his other partner flying beside them.

He wonders what Inaho will do now that they seem to have won. _Will he stay here with the other terrans, or will he head back to Vers with Her Highness and I?_

O

Once the war officially ends, there is alcohol… enough alcohol to get drunk off of even for a dragon.

Dragons do notoriously stupid things when drunk. Slaine has never been drunk before, but he’d been sure he wouldn’t do half of the stupid things he did that night...

...Including his seemingly brilliant decision to propose to his male best friend who was his partner in just about everything else already anyways. Apparently Inaho had been just drunk enough by the combined efforts of Inko and Calm that he’d gone ahead and accepted as if it was the most brilliant plan in the universe.

Slaine legitimately wants to die. Orange catches him moping, takes a second to think and decides on licking his face in an effort to cheer him up. Slaine just sighs, defeated.

_Okay…_

_Maybe it WASN’T the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life._

O

In the end, that stupid decision of his makes a lot of things easier for them. For one, it’s a given that Inaho will be going with him and Asseylum-hime now. Secondly, it definitely solidifies in his mind what they are exactly to one another.

Inaho is less Asseylum-hime’s partner than he is Slaine’s. Asseylum is thrilled by the knowledge that they… ahem… get along so well even if she doesn’t (and will never) know the exact details as to why, and if Orange opens his _goddamn mouth one more time_ Slaine is going to take a bite out of him.

It’s only natural in the end that Slaine is chosen as her official partner and made the Dragon Emperor of Vers, though he’s not sure what to make of the fact that Cruhteo’s son is the one who takes up the human Emperor’s seat. 

O

It’s not long before Slaine realizes Inaho somehow figured out how to break the laws of physics without telling him.

He can’t say he’s impressed by the way he figured it out, though he feels like not preparing himself sooner will probably be the death of him.  
“Oh, hello Slaine!” He stares into the cavern he shares with Inaho, which is now absolutely teeming with terran dragons while a flustered Harklight tends to Lemrina in the center of it all. The speaker, a familiar purple dragoness who may or may not have knowingly aided him in treason, looks up from her conversation with her blond human partner. “Long time no see!”

He’s been gone for a day to help Princess Asseylum manage a few disputes. He knows Inaho was still surfing the web when he left. The only possible explanation to the presence of all these dragons and humans - who he _knows_ were still on earth when he left home due to an active video call - was that Inaho had somehow figured out how to break space and time to get them here.

He isn’t even surprised. “I’d ask how you got here, but I get the strong feeling I don’t want to know.”

“You really don’t.” Inko’s partner calls. “Popcorn?” 

He’s not even going to ask.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, you stuck with me to the end? I'm honestly a bit surprised. If you've made it this far you must be really patient. Sorry about that, it wasn't as good as I intended but that's what I get when I decide to not sleep. I'll probably try to fix it later, but if you spotted any errors please call me out on them. Thank you!


End file.
